Sermon
by Rev. Caela Simmons Wood
First
Congregational UCC, Manhattan, KS
February
21, 2016
Sermon Text – Luke 12:13-21
A man approaches Jesus with a very practical
problem. “Teacher,” he says, “Tell my brother to divide the family inheritance
with me!” Ah, yes. Family squabbles over material goods. This is clearly a
problem we don’t have in the 21st century. We’ve evolved.
Jesus, though, being the great teacher that he is,
refuses to take the bait. He was never one to be bossed around much, anyway.
Rather than doing what the man asks, he uses this as a teaching moment. “Be
careful!” he says. “Be on guard against all kinds of greed, for we do not find
life through owning a bunch of stuff.” And then he told them a parable: “The
land of a rich man produced an abundant harvest of grain. And the rich man
thought to himself, ‘What should I do? I don’t have enough room for all this
grain! I know what I’ll do. I’ll take down my small, shabby barns and build
shiny, new, big ones. I’ll store all of this grain in the new barns. And I’ll
sit back and relax and enjoy it all. I have enough grain here to last for
years! I can relax, eat, drink, and be merry.’ But God said to him, ‘You fool!
This very night, you will die. And all this grain? What happens to it? How can
it help you?’ So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are
not rich towards God.”
In most Bibles this parable is called “The Rich
Fool.” Biblical scholars usually point out a couple of problems with the man’s
behavior. Note that no one seems to think the problem is that he’s been
successful. There’s nothing wrong with reaping a good harvest. The problems
begin with his plan for the harvest: “What should I do? I don’t have enough
room! I know what I’ll do. I’ll take
down my small barns and build myself bigger barns. I’ll store my grain. I’ll relax and
be merry!” David Lose refers to this as the Holy Trinity of “me, myself, and
my.”[1] His thoughts
are entirely centered on self – no mention of thanksgiving to God or the land,
no concern for others.
The second foolish thing is that he seems to
believe the lie that material possessions can create total security. “If I just
had enough money to take that vacation…” “If I just had a more reliable car…” “If
I could just get the newest iProduct…” “If only I had a bit more in my
retirement account…”
I don’t mean to make you feel badly about having
these thoughts. I think they’re pretty normal human thoughts. And apparently
people have been having similar thoughts for centuries. I have these thoughts
often.
But the problem is this: these thoughts are
delusional. Even if we have more and more and more – no matter how big our
barns are – it’s not ultimate security. Because: from dust we come and to dust
we shall return. There are some truths that trump even the biggest barns.
And money can’t buy happiness. Well, actually
that’s not entirely true. It turns out that happiness-studiers have examined
this and a certain amount of money – an income of about $75,000 per year – can buy happiness.[2] Below
that point, people feel insecure and are overly stressed worrying about making
ends meet. That’s natural, of course. Having enough to provide for your basic
necessities is of critical importance.
But above the $75,000? It turns out that once we’ve
met our basic needs and have a little leftover for leisure, we don’t need more
money to be happy. We don’t need bigger barns. More doesn’t equal happier.
Of course, it can be a real challenge to believe
this if you’ve been raised in a hyper-capitalist society because our economic
system is positively dependent on making sure everyone buys into the lie that
bigger is always better, more is always the ultimate goal. From the time we are
born, we are inundated with marketing that indoctrinates us to be good
consumers. Some of us remember when we suffered great tragedy and loss on
September 11th and President Bush told us to go shopping. Yeah. Like
that.
When the man in the crowd approached Jesus and
asked him to fix his financial problems, Jesus wasn’t willing to do so. But he
did give the man a bigger gift: he gave him a parable that invited him to live
into an alternative narrative.
We all need an alternate story if we are to live
beyond what Walter Brueggemann calls the “totalizing” narrative of capitalism
in overdrive. The narrative is
“totalizing” because it impacts absolutely every aspect of our lives. It
doesn’t simply affect the way we earn and spend our money. It affects our
interactions with other people (“Let’s see…if I do this for that person, what
will they owe me?”). It affects the way we teach our children – I wonder
sometime about the damage done to our children by teaching them their worth is
directly related to a number on a page. I worry about all the subtle and
not-so-subtle ways we teach our children that the ultimate goals in life are to
produce and consume. This totalizing economic ideology even affects our leisure
– why must games always be about winning? And why do winners take all?
But though our economic system and its
corresponding values seem as natural as the air we breathe, they are not
inevitable. There are alternative choices.
As we continue on through this season of Lent, some
of us may still be looking for ways to more intentionally connect with the Holy
– and ways to look more critically at the air we are breathing and see if it’s
the only way we can nourish our bodies and spirits. If you are considering
giving something up this Lent, might I suggest exchanging a reliance on
consumer culture for an intentional decision to live into neighborly covenant?
The language I’m using here is borrowed from this
book: An Other Kingdom: Departing the
Consumer Culture. In this book, three scholars from vastly different arenas
came together to ponder the default economic system we live in…and to imagine
an alternate reality. Peter Block, Walter Brueggemann, and John McKnight are, respectively, scholars of
organizational development, the Hebrew Bible, and community organizing. They’ve
come together to encourage us to consider a complete shift in the way we
understand the way resources are allocated in our culture.
The authors write (and I’ve included the quotes
from the book on an insert in your bulletin in case you want to chew on them
more later): “Economic systems based on competition, scarcity, and
acquisitiveness have become more than a question of economics; they have become
the kingdom in which we dwell. That way of thinking invades our social order,
our ways of being together, and what we value. It replicates the kingdom of
ancient Egypt, Pharaoh’s kingdom. It produces a consumer culture that
centralizes wealth and power and leaves the rest wanting what the beneficiaries
of the system have.”[3]
As these three scholars lay out what the current
dominant cultural-economic narrative looks like, they are essentially asking us
to examine the air we breathe. Most of us take these things for granted to the
point that they seem to be just “the way things are.” They name four pillars
that hold this narrative in place: a belief in scarcity, worship at the altars
of predictability and safety, and an addiction to privatization.[4]
Instead of clinging to these pillars, we are
invited to consider an other kingdom.
An alternative reality where we intentionally choose a neighborly covenant with
others. When we choose to live in neighborly covenant with one another, the
questions are no longer about what happens to the Holy Trinity of “me, myself,
and I.” The daily report on NPR each morning isn’t about how the market closed
yesterday. There is no delusion that if we can only build our barns big enough
we will be safe.
Instead, when we live in neighborly covenant there
is a trust that there is always enough to go around, mystery and uncertainty
are all around (and do not cause anxiety), there is space for human error and
grace, and the goal is restoration and health and justice for every living
thing on our planet.[5]
I want to take just a moment and share about two
initiatives happening in our own community that seem to be shining a light on
what life in neighborly covenant might look like. I’ve included some links and
further information there in your bulletin if you want to learn more later.
First, Circles Manhattan is a non-profit that is
relatively new to Manhattan but is a part of a much larger national movement
that’s been around in one form or another for at least twenty years. The goal
of Circles Manhattan is “to
end poverty by building relationships and environments that empower families
and communities to thrive.”
Now,
ending poverty is a pretty big goal. The way Circles approaches their task is
unique. There is an understanding that all of us have something to learn and
something to share with one another – and that our capacity to grow and help
the world is not determined by how much money we have in the bank. In the
Circles model, people who are experiencing poverty are encouraged to go through
training to become Circles Leaders. In doing so, they create a plan to move
themselves and their family out of poverty. They then work with Allies (people
with middle-to-high income levels) to keep moving their plan forward. Through
these circles of support, people who are experiencing poverty are supported as they
work to get to “Enough” and people who already have “More Than Enough” develop
neighborly relationships with people they might not have otherwise known.
There
are so many ways to be involved with Circles – becoming a Circles Leader or
Ally, yes, but also providing behind the scenes support with meals, childcare,
or other tasks needed to keep the program alive and well. Circles Manhattan is
a glimpse at what Neighborly Covenant looks like in action.
The
other local initiative I want to mention is the Buy Nothing Project. Our local
group is a part of a wider international movement. The Buy Nothing Project
offers “people a way to give and receive, share, lend, and express
gratitude through a worldwide network of hyper-local gift economies in which
the true wealth is the web of connections formed between people who are
real-life neighbors.”
People who live near each other share resources.
Participants are invited to share, lend, give, and ask for things they might
want or need. No money is exchanged. No bartering takes place. Everything is
freely given and received. And people are encouraged to get to know one
another, building relationships and creating a network of mutual support. The
Buy Nothing Project is a glimpse of what Neighborly Covenant looks like in
action.
I wonder what the parable of the Rich Fool might sound
like if it happened in a world where Neighborly Covenant was the norm?
The land of a rich man produced
abundantly. And he thought to himself, “Let us gather together and give thanks
to the land, for it has blessed us with a rich harvest.” And he gathered
together friends and strangers at his home.
They relaxed, ate, drank and made
merry….but there was still more to go around. And so they decided to build new
and larger barns in order to carefully take care of all they had been given.
As the years went on, they worked
together to care for the land. In the lean years, they cared for one another.
In the fat years, they made merry. And in every year – both the fat and the
lean – they gave thanks to God, for all had Enough.
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